Chapter 70: It’s Quite Dangerous, We’ll Just Collect Rent

“Mom, didn’t we just make new clothes a couple of days ago? Why are you making more?”

“Clothes need to be rotated. Everyone needs at least two or three sets, and you only have one each.”

“The old clothes aren’t torn yet. They can still be worn with a few patches.”

“Worn? With a few more patches, you can’t even call them clothes anymore. If they’re torn, they’re torn. We’ll bundle them up and use them as mops, so nothing goes to waste.”

“Big Brother, are you worried that we don’t have enough fabric?” Bai Wei entered the room just in time to hear the conversation. Seeing Bai Qiao nodding repeatedly, he smiled and said, “Don’t worry. The island might lack food sometimes, but it definitely doesn’t lack fabric. Xiao Xi and the others found a place that produces a lot of fabric and bought plenty of high quality material. Anyone living on the island can exchange for it, so almost everyone has at least three sets of clothes.”

“Even so, this fabric shouldn’t be cheap.” Bai Qiao carefully touched the clothes he was wearing.

“It’s not cheap to sell to outsiders, but for people on the island to buy, it’s well within everyone’s means,” Bai Wei explained further, seeing Bai Qiao’s still-disbelieving expression. “Big Brother, you haven’t been out on the ships yet. Once you go, you’ll realize that we’ve done a lot of business nearby over the last few years. Not counting the gold and silver Miao Miao and Xiao Xi have saved, the residents of the island have plenty of savings. Life is quite good here.”

“Will this cause trouble?” Bai Qiao was still worried. “I mean, will this attract the attention of those pirates? I’ve heard there are many pirates at sea, and they’re all wicked people.”

He didn’t expect that his serious question would be met with laughter from those around him instead of an answer.

Even people passing by outside couldn’t help but chuckle.

Bai Qiao became even more confused. “What is everyone laughing at?”

“Big Brother, walk around a bit and listen to what people are saying, and you’ll understand,” Bai Wei said, before offering an explanation. “When our ships go out for business, those pirates don’t just avoid us, they flee in terror. A few years ago, some short-sighted pirates tried to rob our goods, and Bai Yu took a crew and wiped out their entire nest.”

Bai Qiao’s eyes widened. “Wiped out their nest? Pirates?”

“Yes, pirates,” Bai Wei nodded. “However, not all the pirates died. Some who hadn’t committed atrocities survived, but they aren’t on this island. They stayed on their own islands and stopped being pirates. Instead, they sail around doing business. Of course, if they want our protection, they have to pay us every month.”

Bai Qiao looked at him in shock. “We even collect protection fees?”

“Not exactly. It’s not forced, but doing business by the sea is risky,” Bai Wei shook his head. “But because they’ve been taught a lesson by us over the years, many pirates don’t dare to cause trouble nearby. There are also many people doing business who haven’t paid and haven’t run into any problems.”

Bai Qiao’s expression was complex. He never imagined that while he and his second brother’s families were barely surviving, the rest of the family was thriving here.

Not only were they doing well, but they could even provide protection to others.

Knowing this, however, made him feel much more secure about living here.

“Xiao Wei, we just arrived and don’t know anything. Please guide me on what to do,” Bai Qiao said earnestly. “No matter what it is, I want to do more work.”

“I was just about to talk to you about that,” Bai Wei said, handing him a plaque. “This is your identity plaque. You can use it to claim work later. Almost all matters on the island, big and small, are handled by Bai Yu and Xiao Xi. Your work will mainly be assigned by Xiao Xi, so just listen to her.”

Bai Qiao immediately took the plaque, remembering something he had heard. “What about Miao Miao? I heard Miao Miao is also very capable.”

“Yes, she’s the strategist. But since she’s so young, she mainly acts as a little teacher. If there’s anything you don’t understand, go ask her. She can answer anything for you.”

“Anything at all?”

“Yes. Over the years, everyone has brought back many books from sea and given them to Miao Miao. She has a photographic memory and remembers everything she reads. So, as long as it’s written in a book, she knows it,” Bai Wei added. “Many of those books were brought from different countries and written in different languages, so we didn’t even know what was in them. But so far, there hasn’t been a single question Miao Miao couldn’t answer.”

“That’s incredible,” Bai Qiao expressed his shock once more. “Bai Yu and Xiao Xi have great strength, and Miao Miao is brilliant. No wonder this island has become so prosperous.”

Bai Wei smiled and patted his shoulder. “So just live here with peace of mind. As long as they are here, everything will be fine.”

Bai Qiao nodded immediately.

Meanwhile, Bai Xi and Bai Miao, who were considered extremely reliable, were seriously discussing menu options.

The New Plane reached by the latest Transit Pass was a very strange place. Although they couldn’t go out and didn’t know the specific situation outside, this plane definitely did not lack meat.

In the few days since they started renting out rooms, they had accumulated over three thousand catties of meat alone.

Fortunately, they had confirmed that these meats were non-toxic and edible. Since they had several rental points under their names, a lot of the meat had been consumed just through sales.

However, as the houses in the New Plane were upgraded and more houses became available for upgrades, the amount of meat would only increase. Therefore, they were discussing processing some of the meat into prepared food to sell back to the tenants of the New Plane.

“There’s enough meat, but we’re short on seasonings,” Bai Xi said, looking at the list Bai Miao had drafted. “To make these future recipes well, we need a lot of ingredients.”

“The current supply is enough for now, but in the long run, it won’t be sufficient. We can grow them, though,” Bai Miao pointed to various seasonings on the list and described how to make them one by one. “For some things where we lack manpower here, we can find people in the Magic Plane. As long as we don’t use the ingredients from that side, the taste won’t be strange.”

This point had been confirmed. Over the years, they had cooked in the Magic Plane more than once. As long as they didn’t use local ingredients, the taste of the food didn’t turn out odd.

And if they were to find people to make seasonings, they would look for those without magic. In that case, the seasonings produced would naturally not contain Magic Elements.

Bai Xi thought about the business side. “If we produce a lot, can we also sell them as goods? Currently, our external business is mainly reselling items. We don’t have our own products. If we have our own products, our business will definitely grow bigger, but the premise is that we need something unique.”

“Would MSG¹ work?” Bai Miao asked her.

Bai Xi’s eyes instantly lit up. “Yes, of course it would!”

Over the years, Bai Miao had read many books from the future. Although she couldn’t fully master everything because of her young age, the content was stored in her mind. When she encountered relevant situations, she could naturally recall the information and think of ways to improve things.

While Bai Yu was still out looking for people, the island’s development had already begun to move forward.

The various planes were also undergoing changes together.

Not long after, people who could purchase supplies through the Rental Interface suddenly discovered that several cooked meat dishes had appeared.

No one was more pleasantly surprised by this than the tenants of the New Plane.

When Bai Xi and Bai Miao arrived, they saw through multiple monitoring windows that the tenants were burying their heads in their food. One portion wasn’t enough, so they ordered a second, then a third.

If they didn’t have enough savings after buying meat, they would immediately go out to hunt.

Then they would come back and continue buying meat to eat.

From what the two of them saw, every person had eaten at least several catties of meat.

But the price of cooked meat dishes was completely different from the price of raw meat. The money required to buy half a kilogram of cooked meat required selling over ten kilograms of raw meat to earn. The more these people ate, the more meat was sold.

Without realizing it, another batch of meat had accumulated in the warehouse.

“Their appetites are so huge.”

“Well, no wonder they can fight those giant beasts,” Bai Xi said, clenching her fist. “I wonder how my strength compares to theirs.”

She glanced at Bai Miao, and Bai Miao looked back at her. Then Bai Miao sighed, adjusted the control panel, and took her to the roof of this residential block, opening a door at the top.

They immediately saw the giant beasts not far away, eyes wide as they searched everywhere for people.

However, compared to the giant beasts, humans were simply too tiny. Even with their eyes wide open, the beasts might not necessarily find anyone.

Of course, letting one’s guard down because of this would be exactly what causes a crisis. After all, the giant beasts couldn’t see the humans, so if a person got too close, they would likely be trampled to death by a stray step.

Bai Xi raised her fist to compare; her entire body was minuscule in front of the giant beast, let alone her fist.

Her desire to go out and explore was instantly extinguished.

“These planes are all so dangerous.”

“Except for the Forest Plane.”

“The Forest Plane was quite dangerous at the beginning too. Even now, we have to build walls to block out the dangers from outside,” Bai Xi remarked with emotion. “Let’s go, let’s go. Forget it, this plane doesn’t look like anything special. We’ll just collect the rent.”

Bai Miao nodded.

The two of them silently returned to the container house.

Then they looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“It’s fine. At least in our own world, we’re both pretty strong. Even though we can’t go out into these planes, at least we can collect rent. It’s still quite practical.”

“Yeah, as long as we can collect rent, that’s enough.”

Neither of them was stubborn. Since the areas outside these planes were extremely dangerous, they had no intention of forcing themselves to go out and explore. Just like that extremely dangerous Gale World; after discovering that hurricanes could appear at any moment in that plane, they had never left the top floor again.

However, although they had never left the top floor, every room in that building had been gradually upgraded over the past few years. The entire building had become a structure capable of withstanding high winds, accommodating many residents.

At this moment, the people in that building also noticed the cooked meat appearing on the rental interface.

Their interest in this meat wasn’t particularly high. What caught their attention most was the small text at the bottom of the interface.

#Public Area Upgrade Material Submission Progress: 1%#

Translator’s Notes